Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) Test

For readers examining reduced motivation, emotional expression, speech, pleasure, or concentration, the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) Test organizes observations into a profile of negative-symptom domains. As a negative symptoms assessment, it supports focused self-reflection and helps identify patterns that may deserve closer discussion, while keeping the result focused on patterns rather than conclusions about causes.

What This Assessment Explores

Negative symptoms here describe diminished activity or expression across several areas, not one isolated mood state. The items address facial and vocal expressiveness, gestures and eye contact, speech production and content, initiative, energy, recreation, intimacy, friendships, and sustained attention. They suit readers who want to examine whether everyday changes cluster together.

The SANS questionnaire links these features with social, educational, occupational, and recreational functioning. Higher results indicate more pronounced features within the named domain; summary scores offer an overall view, but an individual profile may show uneven effects across domains. This makes the domain-level pattern more informative than a single number alone.

Methodology and Scientific Basis

Responses use an ordered 0-5 severity format, moving from absent or questionable signs to severe manifestations. Some prompts refer to interview observation, social functioning, or formal test performance, so an online response depends on interpretation rather than direct clinical observation. The displayed scales and bands are:

• Anhedonia (Global Score) 0-5: Low 0-1/Moderate 2-3/High 4-5; Anhedonia 0-20: Low 0-6/Moderate 7-13/High 14-20; these measure clinician-rated pleasure and interest.
• Avolition (Global Score) 0-5: Low 0-1/Moderate 2-3/High 4-5; Avolition 0-15: Low 0-5/Moderate 6-10/High 11-15; these measure energy, will, motivation, and initiative.
• Alogia (Global Score) 0-5: Low 0-1/Moderate 2-3/High 4-5; Alogia 0-20: Low 0-6/Moderate 7-13/High 14-20; these measure speech output and thought content.
• Affective Flattening (Global Score) 0-5: Minimal/none 0-1/Mild-moderate 2-3/Marked-severe 4-5; Affective Flattening 0-35: Low 0-11/Moderate 12-23/High 24-35; these measure emotional expressiveness and responsiveness.
• Attention Impairment (Global Score) 0-5: None-Minimal 0-1/Mild-Moderate 2-3/Marked-Severe 4-5; Attention Impairment 0-10: Low 0-3/Moderate 4-6/High 7-10; these measure concentration and sustained attention.
• Total Summary Score 0-25: Low severity 0-8/Moderate severity 9-16/High severity 17-25; Sum of Subscale Scores 0-100: Low 0-33/Moderate 34-66/High 67-100; Total Score 0-125: Low 0-29/Moderate 30-60/High 61-125; these summarize negative-symptom severity.

The questionnaire is conceptually consistent with SANS (Andreasen, 1982), the 1984 SANS manual, and Andreasen’s 1989 conceptual account, but it is not a formally standardized clinical administration or an adaptation of the published instrument. Results can shift with current context, self-awareness, and response bias; the bands are descriptive categories rather than diagnostic thresholds. A negative symptom severity profile is therefore a starting point for broader assessment.